Startup ideas win bigger prizes in The Proving Ground 2013

The Proving Ground -- the University of South Carolina’s startup competition for students – is back for
2013 and bigger than ever, this year boasting more than $50,000 in cash prizes and
startup support.

The entrepreneurial challenge, open to undergraduate and graduate students in all
areas of study at the university’s eight campuses, has become one of the top collegiate
business plan competitions in the country for its prizes and startup support.

"We saw an incredible response from students all across USC last year with close to
50 submissions from three campuses. We had teams from all disciplines including chemistry,
engineering, business and the social sciences,” Hilton said. “What's more impressive
though was the quality of the startup concepts. Like no other time, we're seeing a
surging entrepreneurial culture at USC where students are seeing problems and finding
innovative ways to solve them. It gets us very fired up.”

Students have until Oct. 18 to submit their business concept. After that, The Proving
Ground becomes a three-round, points-based competition that culminates with nine finalists
making their big pitch Nov. 19 in a live event before judges and an audience.

In addition to bigger prizes, this year’s competition features more resources to help
students prepare their big ideas for a startup. On a new website students will find details on sessions to get more information and meet entrepreneur
mentors, the application process and Live Plan, free business plan software from Palo
Alto Software available to registered participants. Students also are encouraged to
connect through The Proving Ground's Twitter and Facebook.

The Proving Ground prizes will include:

$15,000 SCRA Technology Ventures Prize for the best innovative technology idea for the marketplace;

$15,000 Fluor Innovation Prize for the most innovative approach to a business concept; and

$15,000 Maxient Social Impact Prize for the business plan best able to contribute or solve a social or environmental
challenge.

“The support from our sponsors has been phenomenal! We literally will be awarding
over 10 times as much prize money this year than we did in our first year, 2010,”
Kress said. “I think our sponsors recognize the entrepreneurial potential of the University
of South Carolina and they want to stimulate that movement and be a part of it. We
owe them so much.”

Winners from last year’s Proving Ground included Watsi, a nonprofit venture that helps people defray the expense of low-cost medical treatments
for people living in poverty; Huddle HR, which provides Web and mobile technology tools to help small business handle human
resource challenges; and myBuddy, an Internet language resource to connect students with foreign language tutors.

Howard Glenn, a member of the Watsi team, said winning a Proving Ground prize led to other opportunities
for the startup. It was the first nonprofit to join the prestigious Silicon Valley
startup accelerator, Y Combinator, which caught the attention of national media.

“The Proving Ground helped us to really understand and refine our organization’s value
proposition in both text – business plans and executive summaries – and verbal formats,
such as elevator pitches and ‘shark tank’ environments with tough questioning,” Glenn
said.

As of June, Watsi had processed more than 3,700 donations, totaling more than $200,000
in medical treatments for more than 250 patients in 13 countries.

Bill Kirkland, executive director for USC’s Office of Economic Engagement, said The Proving Ground
is an excellent example of how the university is fostering a spirit of innovation
and entrepreneurism across campus with resources to help students harness their passions
and take startup ideas from concept to marketplace.

"We've been working hard over the past 24 months to build an ecosystem of support
for entrepreneurship at all levels, including helping students explore and develop
their passion for entrepreneurship. USC is becoming one of the most approachable entrepreneurial
resources in the state, and our aim is to help entrepreneurs at every level be successful,"
he said.